MARIA/STUART

WORLD PREMIERE

August 18 – September 14, 2008

Appropriate for ages 16 & up.

About the Show

Stuart fights to keep the lid on his mother’s and aunts’ simmering angst. But the family’s secrets channel themselves into a bizarre shapeshifter that guzzles soda and chatters German verse. Friedrich Schiller’s classic tale of warring queens inspires a macabre romp into all that suburban America tries to repress.

“Vertiginous flights of imagination…several BIG LAUGHS, production design that dazzles without stealing focus, and a variety-pack of actors who know exactly what they’re doing.”
– City Paper

“Grote has made a name for himself in recent years with scripts that explode the boundaries between the ordinary and the chimerical, the political and the aesthetic, the intimate and the
dizzyingly cosmic.”– Washington Post

“CRAZILY ENTERTAINING COMEDY…surreal, witty, expertly performed. Maria/Stuart is a mélange of intense, ludicrous, silly, common-garden-variety family hell. It is more than enough for a great night out at the theater.”
– Metro Weekly

Who's Who

PLAYWRIGHT

JASON GROTE's plays include 1001 (Denver Center Theater world premiere, O'Neill Playwrights' Conference, Soho Rep Lab, Page 73/On DEC, Theater @ Boston Court, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Mixed Blood), This Storm is What We Call Progress (Rorschach Theater world premiere, Soho Rep Lab), Hamilton Township (Salvage Vanguard world premiere, Soho Rep Mainstage), Maria/Stuart (Woolly Mammoth world premiere, Soho Rep Lab), Box Americana (O'Neill Playwrights' Conference), and Darwin's Challenge. He has received commissions from Denver Center Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theater's Sloan Science and Technology Project, and The Working Theater, and his plays have been published by Samuel French, Playscripts Inc., and in The Back Stage Book of New American Short Plays 2005, edited by Craig Lucas. His work has also been produced or developed with Baltimore Centerstage, The Lark, Playwrights' Horizons, The Playwrights' Foundation, and Portland Center Stage's JAW/West Festival. Honors include an Ovation Award from The Denver Post; the Page 73 Fellowship; nominations for The Pushcart Prize, The Kesselring Prize, and The Weissberger Award; and "Best New Play" (for 1001) from Denver's alternative weekly, Westword. 1001 was also included in critics' year-end top ten lists in Time Out New York, The Rocky Mountain News, and The Boulder Daily Camera. Jason teaches playwriting and screenwriting at Rutgers University, is a member of PEN and New Dramatists, and a contributor to Comedy Central's "Indecision 2008" blog, and is developing a radio play program for WFMU (91.1FM Jersey City, wfmu.org). Visit him at jasongrote.com.

DIRECTOR

PAM MACKINNON most recently directed Edward Albee's Occupant (Signature-NYC), Itamar Moses' The Four of Us (MTC), Robert Aguirre-Sacasa's Good Boys and True (Steppenwolf), and Albee's Peter and Jerry (Second Stage). Her upcoming projects include Adrian Hall's adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men (Intiman) and Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (Arena Stage). Pam’s other recent credits include John Fugelsang's All The Wrong Reasons (NYTW), The Four of Us (Old Globe), David Mamet's Romance (Goodman Theatre), Gina Gionfriddo's After Ashley (Philadelphia Theatre Company) and Bach at Leipzig by Itamar Moses (NYTW); and world premiere productions of Erin Courtney's Alice the Magnet (Clubbed Thumb), Sheri Wilner's Father Joy (CATF and SPF) and Victor Lodato's 3F,4F (Magic). She works frequently with Clubbed Thumb, Inc., where she is an Affiliated Artist.

CAST

MEGHAN GRADY (Hannah) has most recently been seen in Olney Theater Center’s production of Stuff Happens. Washington, DC credits include Hamlet at Carter Barron (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Speed the Plow and Either, Or (Theater J), and Macbeth,Frankenstein, The Dybbuk, Faust, and Romeo and Juliet (Synetic Theater). Other regional credits include Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice, and The Tempest (Richmond Shakespeare Festival), Where’s My Money? (Firehouse Theatre Project), and Lobby Hero (Theater IV’s Theater Gym). Upcoming: Alice for Round House Theatre. Meghan received her BFA in theater from Virginia Commonwealth University.

NAOMI JACOBSON (Aunt Sylvia) is a 15-year company member. Her Woolly credits include The Unmentionables (Helen Hayes nomination), Vigils (HH nomination), Dead Man's Cell Phone, Heaven, and Big Love. She was just in Stuff Happens at Olney Theatre, and played Beatrice in A View from the Bridge, and The Woman in Death of a Salesman for Arena Stage where she is an affiliated artist. Local credits include Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford's Theatre, Round House Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Library, Signature Theatre, Theater J, the Goodman Theatre (Chicago), Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Delaware Theatre Company, and the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Naomi's received an MFA from Temple University, a Helen Hayes Award, and an Individual Artist Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts. Upcoming shows: A Winter's Tale at Folger, The Seagull at Theater J.

ELI JAMES (Stuart) is making his Woolly Mammoth debut. He most recently appeared in Manhattan Theater Club's production of The Four of Us by Itamar Moses. Other New York credits include Iphigenia at Aulis with Highwire Theatre, and Quiet Library, as both a writer and performer, which played at The Upright Citizens Brigade and People's Improv Theater. Regional credits include The East Coast premiere of The Invention of Love at The Wilma Theater, Gross Indecency with the Philadelphia Theater Company, Howie the Rookie with Brat Productions, and The Cripple of Inishmaan at The Wilma. Eli appeared in the British TV series So Graham Norton and V. Graham Norton, and in the Gnarls Barkley video Who Cares? His essay Finding the Beat was published in the Random House collection Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers.

SARAH MARSHALL (Ruthie) performed at Woolly Mammoth in Dead Man's Cell Phone. Her other performances at Woolly include The Clean House, Martha Josie and the Chinese Elvis, TheDead Monkey, In the Blood, The Mineola Twins, Vampires, Wanted, and Spain. Most recently she was at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Karen Zacarias' The Book Club Play, which she also performed in at Round House Theatre. Sarah has performed and taught in Washington for 25 years. She teaches acting at Georgetown University and Duke Ellington.

AMY McWILLIAMS (Marnie) was last seen at Woolly Mammoth in Patience and Rocket to the Moon (co-production with Theater J). Other recent appearances include Ambition Facing West at Theatre Alliance, Shlemiel the First at Theater J, and The Happy Time at Signature Theatre. She has also been seen at the Kennedy Center in both the Sondheim Celebration (Sunday in the Park with George and Merrily We Roll Along) and Tennessee Williams Explored (A Streetcar Named Desire). Some of her other local credits include Nevermore, Urinetown, Zander’s Boat, In the Garden, TheFix, and Cabaret at Signature Theatre; Meet John Doe and several years of A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre; and Sideman, A Streetcar Named Desire,and Fool for Love at Keegan Theatre, including two tours of Ireland. Amy’s TV credits include Homicide and America’s Most Wanted.

EMILY TOWNLEY (Lizzie) After moving away from the area seven years ago, Emily is very pleased and grateful to be returning to the DC theatre community, most especially to Woolly, where she was previously seen in Watbanaland, Wonder of the World, Fuddy Meers, and Spain. Other local credits include performances for Studio Theatre, Round House, the Kennedy Center, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Source Theatre, Horizons Theatre and Actor's Theatre of Washington. She can be seen later this season in Tom Stoppard's Rock N' Roll directed by Joy Zinoman at Studio Theatre. For CTV.

Directions & Parking

Address:

Nearby landmarks:

Woolly Mammoth is located in the bustling Penn Quarter neighborhood on D Street between Oyamel and Rasika restaurants, around the corner from TicketPlace, and down the street from Shakespeare Theatre Company's Lansburgh theatre. We are two blocks north of the National Archives and National Gallery of Art and two blocks south of the Verizon Center and the Smithsonian American Art Museum/Portrait Gallery.

Metro

Take the Yellow or Green line to Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter. Get off at 7th Street and Indiana Avenue, walk up 7th Street about a block, turn right on D Street, and you will see us.

Take the Red, Yellow, or Green lines to Gallery Place-Chinatown. Get off at the 7th and F Street exit, walk two blocks down 7th Street (toward The National Museum of Crime and Punishment), and turn left onto D Street, you will see us immediately on your left.

Metrobus

The 70, 71, D1, D3, and D6 buses stop at the corner of 7th Street and E Street. Get off of the bus, walk south on 7th Street (toward Jaleo), continue 1 block and turn left on D Street, we are immediately on your left.

The P1, P2, P6, 13A, 13B, 13F, 13G, and 54 buses stop at 7th Street & Pennsylvania Ave. Head north on 7th Street toward Indiana Ave. (you will see the Metro stop for Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter-Gallery Place). Walk about 2 blocks and turn right onto D Street, we are on the left.

Not all of these buses have the same route for both directions, so please use WMATA's Trip Planner here.

Parking

There is limited metered street parking in the Penn Quarter near Woolly Mammoth, in addition to the following parking garages:

LAZ, 325 7th St. NW (entrance is on D Street, directly across from the theatre). Open late during Woolly productions, $10 evening rate when you mention you’re going to Woolly.Mobility-impaired patrons, please be aware: LAZ shuts off its elevators on the weekends. Mobility-impaired patrons who wish to use this garage should ask the attendant to park their car in the garage for them. Other options include the Interpark garage at 616 E St. NW which offers an elevator that lets out onto 7th St. opposite The Shakespeare Theatre.

Driving Directions

From Virginia via I-395: When crossing the river bear left towards the 14th Street exit. Follow 14th Street, until Constitution Avenue and take a right. Turn left on 6th Street and another left onto D Street NW. (Note, earlier directions indicated the 12th Street Exit, which is currently closed for construction.)

From Virginia via I-66: Take I-66 into the District when it becomes US-50. Turn left onto 7th St NW. Turn right onto D St NW.

From Bethesda, Rockville, Potomac and points west: Reach Wisconsin Ave., NW via either Interstate 270 and River Road or Rockville Pike (which becomes Wisconsin Ave.) Remain on Wisconsin Ave. until reaching Massachusetts Ave., NW just south of the National Cathedral. Take Massachusetts all the way to 9th St. Turn right on 9th. Turn left on D St.

From Rt. 50, Baltimore and points east: Reach New York Ave., NE via either Rt. 50, I95 or the Baltimore Washington Parkway. Remain on New York Ave. all the way downtown to 6th St., NW. Turn left on 6th St. Turn right on D St.